Plugged back in to the net in Heathrow

Hey all my loyal readers!
The last 5 days have been a whirlwind of activity, and I've had no access to Internet on my computer. I DID get Internet use of my BnB's computer, but that was for limited amounts of time. So, I am going to do my best to catch you up before my Mac battery dies in 28 minutes, umm, 27 minutes (I didn't bring a UK power adapter, only European).
We had a nice and windy (that's wind-ee) drive through the hills of Tuscany to our next BnB, Villa i Cipressi. Unfortunately, we decided to wait until we got most of the way there to figure out exactly where it was located. Turns out their address was on a street unknown to our Tomtom GPS, or Google for that matter. We figured we'd just get close and use the directions from their website (read them, they are lovely and vague). After asking, searching, and a breaking for dinner, I finally got ahold of the booking agent for the BnB (thanks, Euro SIM phone!!). She met us at a restaurant, led us to the Inn keeper, who then led us up, and I mean UP, to the villa. It was 5 miles off the "main" road, and the last 1000 feet was dirt and stone. BUT WOW, it was worth it! Beautiful, quiet, friendly owners, large room, great shower, and amazing view. The same alergic reactions that plague me when I visit PA in the Spring hit me just as hard in Tuscany, however, so I filled my handkerchief a few times (sorry bout that).
The following three days we visited downtown Florence, taking in the extremely old and popular sites. We managed to squeeze in climbing the Duomo (so worth the 460 steps), the 2 hr line at the Uffizi (our reservation didn't go through), and the incredible David at della'Accadamia. Each location we had an audio tour from Rick Steve's, courtesy of his free iTunes podcasts (had some for Venice as well). It was nice to just walk along and get his commentary, although at times it was a bit irreverent, even for my tastes.
Tuesday night we toured a winery with the wedding party (oh yeah, we came here for a wedding), and had a private dinner for 31 one (the whole wedding attendants), very nice.
Wednesday we managed to squeeze in that visit to the Accadamia before the 3:30 Wedding, and glad we did. It was our first time driving into the center of Florence, as the previous 2 days we drove to the end of the local bus service and rode in to avoid the chaos of Florence driving (and insane parking prices). I lucked out with a free street space near the Duomo (unheard of), and with the help of Tomtom, found our way back out of the city and to the wedding with 10 minutes to spare.
If we could have only gotten those 10 minutes when we arrived at the Milan-Malpensa airport on Thursday... NEVER miss a flight on EasyJet. After returning our rental car, waiting 15 minutes for the 10 minute bus ride from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2, we missed check for our EastJet flight by 10 minutes. Next available flight? June 1st. When is the flight to LA from London? May 30th.
We learned a really tough lesson on this one. I simply didn't allow for the time to get from one Terminal to the other. I scrambled for 2 hrs, pumping Euros into the Internet kiosk (no WIFI at all), and finally managed to locate a flight on Lufthansa through Munic on Friday morning at 7AM. No matter what I tried I could not book the flight on that darn terminal, so I was forced to have a ticket agent at Malpensa do it for me, and pay in Euros (OUCH, lost out big time there), paying 1.58X more than I needed to. So, crisis 1 averted, we needed a place to stay other than the floor of Malpensa airport (been there, done that). Just about every local motel that didn't cost 200 Euros was booked that I could find online. Then I had a brainstorm, what about the site I used to find our BnB near Florence? It worked, I found a place 5 minutes away, I called, he was available, and picked us up in 10 minutes!!
Just like every place we stayed on this trip (all independent BnB's in private homes), it was clean, quiet, and with very nice quality bathroom fixtures and shower. Biggest surprise was the beds, they were separated single beds (like on I Love Lucy), but they were VERY comfortable, much more so than any before. Not only did Roberto pick us up, he had breakfast ready for us at 5AM and drove us back to the airport, all for 80 Euros. Just awesome.
I am sure Amy can give all off this her own POV, and hope she will when we return. My battery is slowing tanking out and I want to give her a chance to use my computer. We now wait for our 2PM flight to LA on Virgin Atlantic, and everything is good in the world.
Thanks for reading!